Friday’s Elk, February 5, 2018

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings! Here are some things I’ve been up to…

 

Charles Darwin warned that studying the origin of species wouldn’t be easy. When we look around at distinct species alive today, we’re looking at the tips of evolutionary branches that reach back thousands or millions of years. But sometimes scientists catch a break. Today in the New York Times, I write about a species of crayfish that leaped into existence thanks to a single mutation about 25 years ago. And ever since, it’s been spreading like wildfire. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, February 5, 2018” →

This Mutant Crayfish Clones Itself, and It’s Taking Over Europe

Posted on by Zimmer

The New York Times, February 5, 2018

Link

Frank Lyko, a biologist at the German Cancer Research Center, studies the six-inch-long marbled crayfish. Finding specimens is easy: Dr. Lyko can buy the crayfish at pet stores in Germany, or he can head with colleagues to a nearby lake.

Wait till dark, switch on head lamps, and wander into the shallows. The marbled crayfish will emerge from hiding and begin swarming around your ankles.

“It’s extremely impressive,” said Dr. Lyko. “Three of us once caught 150 animals within one hour, just with our hands.”

Continue reading “This Mutant Crayfish Clones Itself, and It’s Taking Over Europe” →

The Famine Ended 70 Years Ago, but Dutch Genes Still Bear Scars

Posted on by Zimmer

The New York Times, January 31, 2018

Link

In September 1944, trains in the Netherlands ground to a halt. Dutch railway workers were hoping that a strike could stop the transport of Nazi troops, helping the advancing Allied forces.

But the Allied campaign failed, and the Nazis punished the Netherlands by blocking food supplies, plunging much of the country into famine. By the time the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, more than 20,000 people had died of starvation.

The Dutch Hunger Winter has proved unique in unexpected ways.

Continue reading “The Famine Ended 70 Years Ago, but Dutch Genes Still Bear Scars” →

You Are Shaped by the Genes You Inherit. And Maybe by Those You Don’t.

Posted on by Zimmer

The New York Times, January 25, 2018

Link

For centuries, people have drawn the line between nature and nurture.

In the nineteenth century, the English polymath Francis Galton cast nature-versus-nurture in scientific terms. He envisioned a battle between heredity and experience that shapes each of us.

“When nature and nurture compete for supremacy…the former proves the stronger,” Galton wrote in 1874.

Today, scientists can do something Galton couldn’t imagine: they can track the genes we inherit from our parents. They are gaining clues to how that genetic legacy influences many aspects of our experience, from our risk of developing cancer to our tendency to take up smoking.

Continue reading “You Are Shaped by the Genes You Inherit. And Maybe by Those You Don’t.” →

Friday’s Elk January 20, 2018

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Some muskoxen weigh over a thousand pounds. They’re hard animals to miss–that is, if you’ve hopped in a snow machine and traveled across an Arctic tundra for a few hours in search of a herd. But to understand muskoxen there’s no alternative but to be where they live. You can’t Google-Earth your way to insight.

This week in the New York Times, I wrote about Joel Berger, a biologist who has spent a lot of time looking at muskoxen over the past decade. Berger’s research has revealed a worrying vulnerability in these polar giants. Climate change may starve pregnant muskoxen mothers. You can read the whole story here. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk January 20, 2018” →